Andy Serkis’ Nevatars Premieres at Venice Immersive 2026
Andy Serkis’ Nevatars will premiere at Venice Immersive 2026 as a 31-minute extended-reality experience combining animation, virtual reality, mixed reality and interactive storytelling. The project places digital characters in the viewer’s physical surroundings and uses immersive technology to create storytelling that goes beyond a conventional film screen.
Extended reality, or XR, is an umbrella term for immersive technologies, including virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality. Nevatars uses XR glasses and installation technology to let viewers interact with characters and objects while staying aware of the real world around them.
The story follows Aya, a young artist who hides her imperfect creations inside a forgotten computer folder. One of the abandoned characters eventually escapes into her world. Aya must confront the perfectionism that led her to suppress her creativity and come to terms with the work she tried to hide.
The 2026 Venice Immersive programme includes 68 projects from 26 countries. Nevatars is one of 30 projects competing for awards. The experience features the voices of Daisy Ridley, Josh Gad, Kathleen Turner and Serkis.
The idea for Nevatars came from a question about what happens to digital characters and concept art that never make it into a finished film. The project examines the fate of creations produced during development but ultimately left unused.
The concept had been developing at The Imaginarium since 2011. It later gained momentum when Google’s immersive production division approached Serkis and his collaborators about creating stories specifically suited to immersive technology.
The project combines its technological format with a story about creativity and artistic pressure. Its central character, Aya, is a young artist whose imagination is gradually threatened by the pressure to conform. Her experience with the characters she once abandoned brings that conflict into the story.
The story also addresses the pressure artists can face to create work that fits commercial expectations. Aya’s struggle with perfectionism adds to that conflict, as she is forced to confront the creativity she once tried to suppress.
Nevatars is part of the wider Venice Immersive programme, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2026. The programme includes projects that use extended reality in forms that go beyond traditional virtual reality, incorporating different approaches to storytelling and interactive entertainment.
Other projects in the 2026 lineup also feature prominent actors as voice performers. Margot Robbie lends her voice to Galapagos: The Last Eden, while Omar Sy is attached to Artou. Mark Ruffalo voices Solwata, a project about climate refugees.
The programme also includes Bowie: Unseen Unheard, which is built around rare photographs of David Bowie.
Together, the projects presented at Venice Immersive show different ways immersive technology can bring audiences closer to digital stories. Rather than limiting the experience to watching events unfold on a screen, the projects let audiences interact with characters and elements within an immersive setting.
For Nevatars, that approach is tied directly to Aya’s encounter with one of her abandoned creations. The experience uses XR glasses and installation technology to place digital characters and objects within the viewer’s physical surroundings while maintaining awareness of the real world.
The project’s development also connects its technical format with its narrative premise. The idea began at The Imaginarium in 2011 around unused digital characters and concept art, before Google’s immersive production division became involved in developing stories suited to immersive technology.
At Venice Immersive 2026, Nevatars will be presented alongside projects from 26 countries as part of the programme’s 10th anniversary year. Its 31-minute experience combines animation, virtual and mixed reality, interactive storytelling and installation technology around the story of a young artist confronting the creative work she once chose to conceal.
